'Britain's Gay Footballers'

Last night's ‘Britain’s Gay Footballers’ proved a refreshing take on a well-worn story. Having languished in regional programming slots and late night graveyards previously, here the subject was finally given an edgy re-boot. Fronted by a young black female (Justin Fashanu’s niece Amal) on a youth-oriented station, it felt like a knee to the groin of football’s creaky authoritarians before we’d even kicked off.

The problem historically has in some ways been Fashanu himself, his untimely tragic death leaving a dark cloud lingering over the next generation of would-be gay footballers. Yet perversely, putting a Fashanu at the centre of the programme seemed to alleviate the usual gloom and start things on a more positive footing, particularly when comparing the presenter’s attitude to that of her father John.


‘Fash’ was caught bang to rights on camera disowning Justin in 1990 but having had two decades to regret his words appeared to skirt uneasily around the concept of an apology before slapping an uncomfortable ban on his daughters tears (‘we’ve cried for twenty years for Justin and that’s enough”). This crack of emotion however, was preferable to his earlier reasoning that football ‘was never for two men to do a slide tackle and then go back and kiss each other’. Of course, as Fash well knows, kissing is only allowed after a goal.

Other football homophobia stalwarts like Max Clifford were wheeled out to give stock answers. ‘I’ve said this a thousand times’ groaned Max. To be fair, I feel like I’ve been there for most of these, so tightly does he stick to the script (Basically: Yes, there are gay footballers. No, they shouldn’t come out). His unwavering defeatism on the subject is now starting to look a little tired, particularly in the light of recent undeniable breakthroughs with Anton Hysen and rugby’s Gareth Thomas. It’s also questionable as to whether someone who used to do press for The Beatles should be telling us what footballers find ‘unacceptable’ in 2012.


That was almost the dinosaurs done, save for a bizarre cameo from former Forest captain John McGovern whose misty-eyed loyalty to Clough seemed to prompt a mid-interview meltdown. Surely the best way to swerve questioning on Cloughie’s infamous ‘poof’ quote wasn’t to laugh manically at the camera before concluding ‘gay, homosexual, poof – its all the same!’? You can’t help thinking a chat with the forward-thinking Forest chairman, Frank Clark, would have been more enlightening.


The positives were to be taken from the ever-upbeat Hysen - out and proud in the fourth tier of Swedish football.  Admittedly it’s probably easier to ‘run the gauntlet’ when your fan-base consists of a handful of liberal Swedes huddled around one terrace as opposed to say, the baying masses at Elland Road (covered here elsewhere). However, the light-hearted dressing room scenes of togetherness handily crushed Clifford’s case and seeing both Hysen and Amal Fashanu celebrate victory at a Swedish club later that night offered a teasing glimpse of how a post-Blatter football world might look.

Perhaps the most insightful contribution came from Matt Lucas who was shrewd enough not to throw the baby out with the bathwater when it came to football fans and homophobia. In allowing for chants such as ‘we can see you holding hands’ he acknowledged the need for a level of humour and irreverence in order to start combating homophobia, as opposed to the eerie silence of recent years. Yes, the banter of fans can be stinging but is not entirely without warmth. Justin himself regularly entered into these exchanges as an openly gay footballer and his brother’s need to portray football fans as the real enemy here felt like projection.




Overall this was a great opportunity for those directly affected by the Fashanu story to admit mistakes were made and allow today’s gay footballers to move out of his shadow. It’s a shame his brother couldn’t quite manage that. There’s more chance of the next pope being black than a footballer coming out, he quipped. I’m guessing he used to say that about the president too.